Heck, it's not even standard operating procedure (which implies it's optional), it's just arithmetic. A year is always going to be 52 weeks long, so the fewer episodes there are per season, the longer the break between seasons is going to be.

^And then people would complain about having to wait three weeks between new episodes, just like they already do now whenever there's a week off. The problem isn't with the shows, the problem is that people today have no patience and expect instant gratification.

Heck, it's not even standard operating procedure (which implies it's optional), it's just arithmetic. A year is always going to be 52 weeks long, so the fewer episodes there are per season, the longer the break between seasons is going to be.

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Well this is based on the assumption that the show will premiere at the same time each year, which doesn't necessarily have to be the case. I suppose if a show is being ambitious technically it could ramp up production so there's simply less time in between seasons. But realistically that's just generally not how the industry works. For starters, it's more expensive. Also programming stability is a good thing. It gives the networks an idea of what their needs are in a calendar year, and it helps with ratings for the viewing audience to be used to certain shows coming back at certain times of year.

Well, yeah, theoretically you could have a shorter gap in a given year, but that couldn't be expected every year. It takes time and money to produce a TV season, and a production only gets money allocated to it for so many episodes per year. However much you might be able to shift premiere dates in specific cases, on the average you'd still get only one season per year, so if there's a shorter gap between seasons one year, it has to be paid for by a longer gap the following year.

Well, yeah, theoretically you could have a shorter gap in a given year, but that couldn't be expected every year. It takes time and money to produce a TV season, and a production only gets money allocated to it for so many episodes per year. However much you might be able to shift premiere dates in specific cases, on the average you'd still get only one season per year, so if there's a shorter gap between seasons one year, it has to be paid for by a longer gap the following year.

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Agreed. You do see it now and then, like the first season of HBO's Girls premiered with GoT in the Spring, but the second season had a January debut, followed by another January debut for the third season, so it happens. But like you said, for practical reasons it's really just not how the industry works.

Deadline reports that Paramount TV is developing a TV series version of The Truman Show.

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That seems a little redundant these days, honestly. When the film came out, the idea that millions of TV viewers would watch a show that was just spying on a person's real life was still somewhat conjectural. These days it's an everyday reality, pun intended.